Case Number 24673

NIKITA: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

The Charge

Looks do kill.

Opening Statement

Nikita won a sizeable fan base for a new show early in its debut
season, and the drop in viewers between its premiere and finale episodes wasn't
as significant as many new shows (especially niche shows). That finale gave
viewers quite a twist, and much of Nikita: The Complete Second Season
watches the fallout of that moment percolate its way through the lives of
everyone involved in the fight over the Division. This willingness to make bold
moves and keep the show fresh helps push this second season of Nikita
above the first and hints that the show could become great.

Facts of the Case

When the first season of Nikita ended, Nikita (Maggie Q, Live Free
or Die Hard) was still out to get the division, but her colleagues Michael
(Shane West, Dracula 2000) and Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca, Kick-Ass) had
switched places. Michael was now outside the fabled Division, joining Nikita on
her mission to take down that secretive organization that nurtured them both.
Meanwhile, Alex is estranged from Nikita, and working with Division to thwart
Nikita while also looking into the murder of her family some years prior. More
importantly, Michael and Nikita are in possession of a device that could bring
down Division, and Alex must help stop them.

The Evidence

I said in my review of the first season of Nikita that it was a show
that did a fine job but it had yet to find its legs. Those first twenty-two
episodes convinced me that with the right choices, Nikita could be a good
show. For my money, they've started to make those choices with the second
season.

By switching things up at the end of the first season, the writers of
Nikita signaled that they were going all in on the show's premise.
There's only so much that can be done with the one-woman-against-the-Division
plotline, even with the added spice of having a mole on the inside. Throwing out
the previous alignments by having Michael and Alex switch sides is a bold move
that shows the writers aren't willing to let viewers get comfortable. That kind
of "anything can happen" energy helps the show in the present and
signals a certain amount of long-term health as well.

It helps, of course, that the move succeeds. Season One very much ran the
risk of turning everything into black and white: Nikita good, Division bad.
There's no movement to that kind of story. Either Nikita takes Division down or
she doesn't. By having Michael switch sides, we get a different take on the way
that the Division operates. More importantly, Alex doesn't just sail right back
into the arms of everyone at Division. Instead, she's pursuing her own agenda in
finding her family's killer. That makes her a wild card that disrupts the
black-and-white world of the first season of Nikita.

The best part, though, is that the show builds on the strengths of Season
One. Maggie Q still makes Nikita an interesting badass who is able to sell the
trained assassin and dressed-up infiltrator parts of her role with ease. Shane
West's Michael may have changed sides, but he's still suave while convincing in
the trained assassin parts of his role. Xander Berkeley gets put into some
interesting situations, and he's as watchable as ever.

This season continues the show's commitment to a solid DVD release. The
1.78:1 transfers included here are at least the equal of their Season One
counterparts. Colors are well-saturated, the image is clear and bright, and
black levels are appropriate and deep (at least for broadcast television). No
serious digital problems crop up either. The Dolby 5.1 surround tracks are
equally impressive. The show's dialogue comes through clearly from the front
channels, and the surrounds are used regularly for atmosphere and action
scenes.

Extras kick off with a pair of featurettes. The first talks to the writers
about the show, and the second is a behind-the-scenes with Maggie Q. A gag reel
and some "unaired" scenes for most of the episodes are included as
well, and things round out with a commentary on the season finale by creator
Craig Silverstein and episode writer Carlos Coto.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Of course, not everyone is going to enjoy a bold move like having Alex work
against Nikita. For those who were really comfortable with the status quo of
Season One, the total mixup of this season might come as a bit of a shock. For
me, the show occasionally went a bit too far in establishing its mythology this
season. Division is fine, but then there's Oversight and all the crazy mission
names and code words and everything. A few times it got to be too much, and I
can see some viewers getting frustrated with the show's vocabulary and
mythology. It's almost to the point where an insert in the DVD might help move
things along.

Though the plot ramps up quite a bit this season, the action is still a bit
bland. There's only so much that can be done with a television budget and within
the constraints of the spy genre. So, it's still a lot of infiltrate and kill,
infiltrate and kill. The writers try to mix it up as much as they can, but the
action will get stale for a lot of viewers, which is unfortunate for a show that
has to rely so much on action.

Closing Statement

Nikita is starting to distinguish itself in Season Two as the writers
move to change things up. Starting the season with some big character reversals,
the rest of the season moves to fill in some background, with twists and turns
along the way. The show is still finding its feet, but proving it has legs and
could become a solid action/spy series. The DVD set itself is strong, with a
good audiovisual presentation and enough extras to satisfy fans. It's worth at
least a rental to those who stuck through Season One, and even those who skipped
that season can start here without too much trouble.